Time Magazine names #metoo movement as 2017 Person of the Year

By Nicole Bitette
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Dec 6, 2017 at 3:17 PM

Time Magazine’s Person of the Year isn’t just one person — but millions of victims of sexual harassment and assault.

On Wednesday, the magazine named the #metoo movement — or the “Silence Breakers” as the “Person of the Year,” a nod to the millions of people who came forward with their stories of sexual harassment, assault and rape after big Hollywood players like Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and dozens of other powerful men were accused of sexual misconduct.

“For giving voice to open secrets, for moving whisper networks onto social networks, for pushing us all to stop accepting the unacceptable, The Silence Breakers are the 2017 Person of the Year,” Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthan said in a statement.

Founder of the #MeToo movement, Tarana Burke, appeared on the cover along with actresses Rose McGowan, Selma Blair and Ashley Judd, who broke the silence by coming forward with accusations against Harvey Weinstein. Former Uber engineer Susan Fowler was one of the women on the cover. She posted a powerful blog entry in February about harassment she faced during her time at the company.

Taylor Swift, who won $1 in a sexual harassment trial against a Denver DJ accused of groping her also appeared on the magazine’s cover.

Burke first used the phrase that would be come such a widely used hashtag in 2017 more than a decade ago while working with young survivors or harassment and assault. Actress Alyssa Milano was sent a screenshot of the phrase and chose to send it out on Twitter.

“If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet,” she wrote. She told Time she woke up to more than 30,000 uses of the hashtag and burst into tears.

The focus was not only on those in Hollywood or in TV journalism. A strawberry picker from California named Isabel Pascual was one of many to take to the streets of California to join stars and civilians alike in their march against the abusive behavior.

While many of the people featured in Time’s piece were women from all professions, actor Terry Crews was also included for speaking out against popular agent Adam Venit, who he accused of groping his genitals at a party and is now suing.

The announcement comes after President Donald Trump made a mockery of the designation, noting on Twitter that Time had called him and told him he would “probably” be named, but the mag caught him in a lie by clarifying they don’t reach out to anyone until Dec. 6.

“The President is incorrect about how we choose Person of the Year. TIME does not comment on our choice until publication, which is December 6,” a tweet from the magazine read.

Trump, Former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, Amazon head Jeff Bezos, Kim Jong Un, the dreamers and former FBI director Robert Mueller, were also on the shortlist for the award as the company states the person of the year is “for good or ill.”

Despite slamming the designation, Trump was named Person of the Year in 2016 shortly after he was elected.

He landed in the second spot this year with Chinese president Xi Jinping at No. 3.